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Jagpreet
26 July, 2024
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“Education is the one thing no one can take away from you” – Elin Nordegren
Our Indian constitution very specifically gives the right to education to every single citizen of the country, so no one can take it away from you. Educational infrastructure is the strength pillar of a country’s socio-economic development. In the voyage of nation-building, preparing strong minds with the light of education is the aim of the Ministry of Education, Government of India.
The MoE is headed by the education minister who is a cabinet minister belonging to the ruling political party. He plays a critical role in planning and overseeing the needs of the population as a representative head. After every 5 years, the education minister is changed as per the results of the Lok Sabha elections. Currently, Hon’ble Cabinet Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan is the education minister of India.
Let’s learn about his profile in detail and the work he did.
Shri Dharmendra Pradhan hails from the Talcher region in Odisha. He was born on June 26, 1969, in the family of former Bhartiya Janta Party MP, Dr, Debendra Pradhan. His political interest and leadership qualities were visible from his early college days only. In the proceeding days, he served as the ABVP Secretary and worked as an election in charge in Bihar. He was also involved in the ABVP party affairs in Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Odisha. Later in 1998, he followed the footsteps of his father and joined the BJP. Working for the party ever since, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, the Union Minister for Education took charge of his office on 13th June 2024. He represents the Sambalpur seat in the Lok Sabha as a Member of Parliament. In addition to this, he is also the Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
In March 2024, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan launched various initiatives for school and teacher education. He launched the National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) and National Mission for Mentoring (NMM) programmes. Along with this, he launched printed books on NMM and NPST, guidelines and videos of SCERTs/DIETs, video of Vidya Samiksha Kendra, 200 TV channels and 52 primers in the Indian language. (DIETs represent 613 District Institutes of Education and Training)
In February 2024, the Union Education Minister launched the new SWAYAM Plus platform. The platform provides professional development and employability-focused programmes.
In Orissa, he launched the project ODISERV in the Sambalpur area to train young graduates for employment opportunities in the financial services area. It is a 100-hour training programme which focuses on skills concerning the banking, finance and insurance industries. Under the project, ODISERV, over 1100 students have already been trained and some have also received job offers.
The Ministry of Education was created on 26th September 1985 by the 174th amendment to the Government of India Rules, 1961. Earlier it was known by the name Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD). However, the Union Cabinet decided to change the name on July 29 to Ministery of Education to define the focus of the ministry clearly. It actually got back the name which was given after Independence. The Ministry of Education has two sub-departments which cater to different grades of the Indian education system.
Department of School Education and Literacy
Department of Higher Education
Both these departments have distinct roles and functions. Schemes and programmes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Nationwide Elementary Education and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan among others fall under the umbrella of the Department of School Education and Literacy.
Here is the list of education ministers who assumed their office since independence:
| Name of the Minister | Tenure |
| Maulana Abul Kalam Azad | 1947 to 1958 |
| K.L Shirmali | 1958 to 1963 |
| Humayun Kabir | September 1963 to November 1963 |
| M.C Chagla | 1963 to 1966 |
| Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed | 1966 to 1967 |
| Triguna Sen | 1967 to 1969 |
| V.K.R.V Rao | 1969 to 1971 |
| Siddhartha Shankar Ray | 1971 to 1972 |
| S. Nurul Hasan | 1972 to 1977 |
| Pratap Chandra Chunder | 1977 to 1979 |
| Karan Singh | 1979 to 1980 |
| B. Shankaranand | January 1980 to October 1980 |
| Shankarrao Chavan | October 1980 to August 1981 |
| Sheila Kaul | 1981 to 1984 |
| K.C Pant | December 1984 to September 1985 |
| P.V Narasimha Rao | 1985 to 1988 |
| P. Shiv Shankar | 1988 to 1989 |
| V.P Singh | December 1989 to November 1990 |
| Raj Mangal Pande | November 1990 to June 1991 |
| Arjun Singh | 1991 to 1994 |
| P.V Narasimha Rao (twice) | December 1994 to February 1995 |
| Madhovrao Scindia | February 1995 to January 1996 |
| P.V Narasimha Rao (thrice) | January 1996 to May 1996 |
| Atal Bihari Vajpayee | May 1996 to June 1996 |
| S.r Bommai | 1996 to 1998 |
| Murli Manohar Joshi | 1998 to 2009 |
| Arjun Singh (twice) | 2004 to 2009 |
| Kapil Sibal | 2009 to 2012 |
| M.m Pallam Raju | 2012 to 2014 |
| Smriti Irani | 2014 to 2016 |
| Prakash Javadekar | 2016 to 2019 |
| Ramesh Pokhriyal | 2019 to 2021 |
| Dharmendra Pradhan | 2021 till now |
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan assumed office as the education minister of India for the second term. Throughout his political tenure, he has taken many initiatives to upgrade the quality of school and higher education. The education minister of India has to serve a tenure of five years in office and may or may not change once the new government is elected.
